This seminal work of avant-garde opera from composer Philip Glass and director Robert Wilson arrives full-circle, coming o France, the site of its 1976 Avignon Festival world premiere, at the tail end of this 2014 revival tour for a landmark Theâtre du Châtelet production and a first ever filming by award-winning arts filmmaker Don Kent. Eschewing onventional narrative, the opera revolves loosely around pacifist Einstein’s relationship to the creation of the atomic bomb. In continuity with the opera’s debut, for this new production, hailed by Le Figaro as ‘meticulously crafted total artwork in which the visual and musical craft are inseparable’, the music is again performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble and the choreography devised by original cast member Lucinda Childs for her Lucinda Childs Dance Company, with the scenes taking place under Bob Wilson’s own digitally remastered light design.

This very special release is packaged in a luxurious 56 page hardcover book.

“I began with this photo of Einstein in his study at Princeton. I looked at many photos of Einstein. Photos of him when he was two years old, 20 years old, 40, 60, 70 years old. In all standing portraits of him, he held his hand in the same position as in the photo. The little space between his thumb and the next finger is always the same. I started the opera with this gesture. And continued. (Robert Wilson)

I don t care about music theory, I m only interested in listening to music. I begin by listening. Like images emerging from the mist and becoming visible. (Philip Glass)

It was the time of pop art and minimalism, often one set against the other. Pop art is a proclamation of the end of the world. The minimal movement is a new beginning. (Lucinda Childs)

Reviews

Financial Times October 2016

“The static tableaux are as much art installation as music theatre, and need to be seen rather than just heard

Gramophone Magazine January 2017 ” this is close to a definitive version of the opera as you’re likely to get.